Sum Of Our Parts
by Creative Heart 1997
Summary: "We are, we are more than our scars. We are, we are more than the sum of our parts."-Mary Lambert Katrina Swan was overjoyed to have finally found a family with her new father Charlie and the Cullen's. But with the dark shadows of her past lurking and the chaos brought by her sister's arrival, can Kat keep her family safe? Or will history repeat itself? Rated M for Future Chapters!
1. Chapter 1

AN: So here it is a new story. I've been working on this one for months and have over 100'000 words pre-written so it will be being updated regularly. If this is the first of my stories you've read, welcome, if not then welcome back. I try to update three times a week; a chapter of a story every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have a few stories going that I am focusing on so it will not be three chapters of the same story. I currently have a Walking Dead fic going called Hope Is Stronger Than Fear, and should be posting the first chapter of a Flash one today as well.

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Stephanie Myer and others who own the copy write, I do not know them all. I am simply barrowing them for entertainment purposes and am making no money from this.

-I do own any unrecognized characters.-

AN: Now with all that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the story.

-Line Break-

"They say "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger"… I don't agree. Some things that didn't kill me came so close that they're still damaging. They didn't make me better. Some things made me worse. And can't that be ok too? Can't some things just break you? This whole fucking world wants you to believe that admitting defeat makes you weak. For God's sake, bleed. And bleed openly. There can be pride in vulnerability. Honesty is maturity. And really, it's the things that did kill me, that made me." – J. Raymond

The rock cracked around them, the cliff face was breaking away, bringing with it the hiking trail. People turned running back the other way, as the rock shattered down into the forest miles below. A woman around 40 years old was the first to fall, her screams echoing across the mountain side. Next was a man in his early 50's, her husband; he fell as he shoved, a child, his son, a 9 year old boy, into the arms of a teen girl. The girl yanked the boy back, and tossed him towards the cliffside, as the ground gave way below her. The boy grabbed on, managing to be the only of the four not to fall. The girl screamed as she fell, feeling her bones break as she tumbled down, hitting rock after rock. The man was the first to die, his head hitting too hard against a rock, killing him on impact. Next was the woman, she was the first to hit the forest floor, she succumbed to her injuries within minutes, her last sight, that of her son, clinging, alive far above her on the cliffside. The girl never did reach the forest floor, landing on a ledge. Her vision faded, as she watched the boy climb along the cliffside fearfully, before he disappeared from view. Her brown eyes closed, as the sun began to set.

-Line Break-

Late in the night, a young boy stumbled down the street of Forks, Washington. Dirt covered him; blood glistened on his scrapped knees, his hands a matching sight. He stumbled to the police station, banging on the glass doors. The station was dark, but for one light that could be seen from a desk inside. A man stood, hearing the banging, moving to the front, and turning on lights. His brown eyes widened, seeing the child. He rushed to unlock the doors.

"Please, help… my mom and dad need help." The boy cries, as the man kneels in front of him.

"What happened?" The man asked worriedly, carefully placing a hand on the boys shoulder.

"We were hiking… Mom, Dad, Kat, and me. The cliff broke… they fell… They need help." He cries harder.

"So there are three people who need help?" The man clarifies. The boy nods.

"My parents and foster sister, sir… please help them…. Please." He breaks down sobbing. The man gathers the boy in his arms, carrying him to a police cruiser. He puts the boy in the back seat, and buckles him in, quickly driving to the hospital while radioing the other officers for a search and rescue.

-Line Break-

Kat groaned, as she blinked her eyes open, seeing her cracked glasses. Rain was pouring down; she was soaked through, freezing. She slowing tried to sit up, gasping in pain, as she moved. She had certainly broken a few ribs, her right leg was twisted at and odd angle, her left arm looked partially crushed. She sits herself up, dragging herself to lean against the rock face. She didn't know how long she'd been out there… she remembered the rock shattering, then falling… the pain… she hoped Daniel had gotten help… she had seen him leave… she thinks. It was dark, and slowly growing darker, meaning the sun was setting… she had passed out seeing the sun set, but the sky had been completely clear… and now… the rain? So had a full day gone by? She shakes her head, not sure what to think.

She manages to pull her backpack off her back. She didn't know how long she would need to wait for help, or if it was even coming… She pulled out her first aid kit, her pocket knife, her water bottle, and one of three energy bars she had. She opened the kit, shaking her head as the contents were soaked by the rain. She took out gauze she had, and used it, despite it being wet, to bandage her cuts. Her left arm was bleeding badly, she taped the gauze in place as best she could, and leaned back again… she couldn't walk with her leg like it was, but she also didn't know how to set it, not to mention her ribs. She could use her left hand, but she wasn't sure how much weight the arm would hold. She would have to wait… if help hadn't come by the next day… well then she'd figure it out.

-Line Break-

Kat bit her lip as she forced her leg back in the direction she knew it was supposed to go, screaming at the pain. Her vision growing blurred. She leaned back breathing heavily. She grabbed the sticks she had found and put them on either side of her leg, and used stripes of fabric she had cut from her pants, to tie it into place, like she had seen in the movies. Once done she packed her stuff into her bag and looked up the cliff. She had three options here, wait for help that may never come, climb back up the cliff, and take the trail she already knew, or climb down the cliff, and go through the forest she had never been in. She judges the rock face then shakes her head; there was no way she could pull herself up that cliff… not in this condition. She looks over the edge of the ledge, climbing down would be easier… assuming she didn't just fall, and die… She sighs.

"Why do these things always happen to me?" she mutters as she moves to the edge of her ledge, she pulls her backpack on, grabs a hand hold on the cliff face, and starts her decent. Her right leg hung uselessly as she climbed down, her left leg having to do all the work. Her left arm was holding out for now, but not without a lot of pain. She sighed in relief as she reached the forest floor. She lowered herself to the ground there. She rests for a while, eating a few bites of her energy bar, and drinking a few sips of her water.

"Okay, now which way is town?" She mutters as she uses a large stick to pull herself up. She starts limping along the cliff, back the way they had hiked the day before.

She had been going for hours, having had to split away from the cliff when it led to a steep drop off. She just continued going down, knowing that the town should be down the mountain.

-Line Break-

Kat looked down at her last bite of energy bar, all three where gone now, and so was most of her water… it had to have been at least three days since she fell. That is not including the day she had been unconscious, she was positive she was lost, and that if she didn't find something soon… well… She shakes her head.

"You are not dying… that is not allowed." She whispers to herself, as she moved through the trees. Hours passed, and still nothing… another hour, and she was out of water. She placed the water bottle in her backpack; if it rained again she could collect the water in it.

The sun was starting to set again, as she limped through the trees seeing what she thought was clearing. She limped towards it, hoping to find a place to sleep for the night, a shocked gasp escaping her as she stepped out of the trees, onto cement. It was a road… She had no clue what road, but a road… she had made it… at least to something. She looks down each side of the road for any signs, limping down the road when she sees one.

"Thank you, god or whatever the heck is out there." She says with a grin as she reads the sign. 'Welcome to Forks.' She starts down the road in that direction, just as she starts to see buildings, a police cruiser pulls up beside her, a man steps out, his eyes wide.

"Are you Katrina Nolan?" he asks her. She nods, a large grin slipping into place. "I'm Chief Swan; we've been searching for you. Are Jessica and Mathew Jackson with you?" She shakes her head…

"I… I don't know where they are… I didn't see them; I assumed they were probably dead." She explains, her voice shaking. He nods and leans into the car, radioing for an ambulance. He moves over to her, and carefully helps her over to the car, helping her to sit on the hood.

"Do you know where you were all hiking? Daniel couldn't remember, so we haven't known where to look."

"We were on snake's ridge… I don't know its real name, but that's what Mr. Jackson called it." Chief Swan nods.

"I know the ridge, how did you get back here?" he asks her.

"I figured, help may not be coming, so I tried to set my leg… I don't know if I got it right… I did what they always do in the movies." She explains motioning to her right leg. "Then I climbed the rest of the cliff, and just went down the mountain… I knew the town would be down…" she shrugs.

"Well you are a very brave, young lady." He says looking at her sadly. They both turn as the ambulance pulls up followed by two police cruisers. "Let's get you taken care of, Katrina."

"It's Kat… I go by Kat, sir." She speaks up. The man smiles at her.

"Alright Kat, call me Charlie."

-Line Break-

AN: I hope you enjoyed. I will update again soon. I use quotes a lot to start new parts of this story and would love for people to send some in. If you have a quote you want to give me PM me or review with it and I'll add it to my list to be used in this story or future ones.

Follow me and Sum Of Our Parts to be notified when I update it and other stories, and favorite if you enjoyed.

Live, Long, and Prosper,

~ Kat


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Stephanie Myer and others who own the copy write I do not know them all. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment purposes and am making no money from this.

-I do own any unrecognized characters. Please do not use my characters or my world without my permission. (Ask I'm likely to say yes.)-

AN:

So I was updating my stories and realized I'd only posted one chapter of this story, I am so sorry I didn't realize I hadn't gotten around to separating out and posting more chapters. This is the longest story I've written and is far from finished at over 160,000 words. I hope for it to go for a while longer. I'll post a few chapters every so often. Any schedules I had are being thrown out as anyone who has read any of my stories probably knows I suck at sticking to them.

With my 21st birthday approaching later this month (May 21st, 2018) I wanted to check into my fanfiction account as I am approaching 10 years on next march (10 years using the site in the fall, 10 years since I made the account in March 2019.) It's hard to think when I first found this site I was only eleven. My writing has greatly improved and it is always interesting (And cringe worthy) to look back on my old work and how far I've come.

I love this story it's one of my favorites that I've written and is one of the most fun to write. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do! On with the story!

-Line Break-

"Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted?" – Abraham Verghese

They painted the walls of her room blue, with white foot boards, her carpet, was a light gray. The bed they bought was a white wood, four posts, marked the corners; with blue and green bedspreads, and lots of pillows. Fairy lights where hung along the edges of the room, silver and blue lights. Blue paint spots scattered across the carpet here and there, from many, many paint fights. A white writer's desk sat against one wall, a brand new laptop sitting on top, a gift from Daniel's aunt. Her closet doors had been painted white, inside an almost entirely new wardrobe, along with a few shirts and pants she'd had before. Pictures where pinned to the walls in rows, many from before… but just as many more recent; multiple dream catchers hung above the bed, gifts from the Black's and Clearwater's. On the bedside table sat a simple white frame, in it a picture from the day, she had waited for her entire life, adoption day.

"You ready?" Her social worker looks at her in the passenger seat, she wore a light blue dress, she had found at goodwill the week before, and her normal silver high tops. Her brown hair, hung down past her shoulders, curling up, slightly frizzy. She pushed her new black, thick framed glasses up her nose.

"Definitely… I've been ready for this for forever." She says with a grin.

"Then let's get you adopted." The two head into the small court house, in down town Seattle. Kat limps through the big doors; Ainsley Summers, her social worker, and oldest friend walking confidently beside her. The court room was full of people. Daniel runs over to her from the right side of the room, hugging her around the waist.

"Congratulations Kat!" he yells happily. She laughs softly and pats his head. "I'm glad you got a family… but I wish you could have been my sister…" he says a bit sadly.

"I know, Dani… but we'll keep in touch, your aunt said we could." She promises him, as his aunt pulls him back, giving her a kind smile. Ainsley pulls her forward, to the front of the court room, having her sit at a table on the right side. The right side of the court room was completely full, with many of her teachers from throughout the years, her friends, old foster families, and multiple social workers who had helped with her case. She was amazed so many people had come, for her. Her eyes scanned the left side of the court, she recognized, some of the doctors from the Forks hospital, and many of the police officers, multiple rows full of people she didn't know or had only seen once or twice. At the front was a Native American man in a wheel chair, with a young preteen boy beside him, next to them was the man she had been looking for.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, why don't we get this started?" The judge calls out taking his seat. Kat tuned out the meeting until Ainsley nudged her arm. "Miss Nolan, do you want Charlie Swan to adopt you?" The judge asks her with a kind smile.

"Yes sir, I would." She says her voice quiet but strong. The judge nods.

"Then from what I have seen and heard here today, I don't see any reason not to approve the adoption. Now if you would please come up, we can sign the final papers." He says. Ainsley leads her to the front, as Charlie walks up as well, giving her a grin. She grins back. "Now you can either keep your name, or change it to Swan, that is up to you two." The judge explains.

"Up to you, Kat" Charlie nods to her.

"Just print the name you want here, and then sign with that name below." The judge tells her, after Charlie and Ainsley sign their parts.

She tentatively takes the pen, this was it… if she signed these forms… she would no longer be a foster kid… the only thing she had ever been… She had watched as her friends signed their forms and found their 'forever family's' but had never been even close to getting there herself. She would have a father, someone who loved her, and a new sister, although she lived with her mother in Arizona. She would finally have a home, a place to belong. She takes a deep breath and writes her name, then signs the forms. She hands them to the judge.

"Congratulations, Katrina Estelle Swan, you have been adopted." He tells her with a smile. Kat grins widely turning to her new dad. Charlie grins at her tears shinning in his eyes.

"Come here kiddo." He says pulling her into a tight hug. She hugs him back laughing happily. People cheer around them.

"Okay you two, turn this way, smile." Ainsley calls holding up a camera. Charlie turns to Ainsley, straightening his suit jacket, placing his arm firmly around Kat's shoulders. She grins happily up at him then looks at the camera.

It had been the best day of her life, she had decided, that afternoon, as she hugged her friends and teachers outside the court house. She stood holding a sign she had made for the day, as Ainsley took more photos. The sign read 'I spent 5093 days in Foster Care, But Today on May 1st' 2002, I was adopted!' She grins as Charlie joins her for the photos.

The photo of the two with the sign, hung on her wall, above her desk. Above her bed, white wooden letters hung, spelling out 'Swan'. She was finally home.

-Line Break-

"I spent so many years walking around on eggshells, afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Now I can just be myself." – Wendy

"Kat… kiddo… wake up." Kat groaned pulling her blankets over her head. "Come on, Katrina." Charlie pulls her blankets down, enough to see her face. She blinks open her eyes with a sigh, leaning over and grabbing her glasses.

"Morning, Dad." She grins a bit, still getting used to being able to call someone dad. Charlie grins back at her, and pulls a present from behind his back.

"Happy Birthday." She stares at him in shock for a minute, before grinning even wider.

"Thank you!" she takes it carefully in her hands.

"Go on, open it." Charlie motions to her. Kat slowly pulls off the wrapping paper, and opens the box, inside is a beautiful silver charm bracelet, with a few charms already attached. One is an Emerald heart, with May 21st etched in it, to represent her birthday; there is silver Swan, for their family, a crystal heart, with May 1st etched in it, for her adoption, and a police badge, for Charlie. She stares at it in awe, examining each charm carefully. Before looking up at his nervous face.

"I love it, thank you dad." She sets it and the box on the bed, then jumps up hugging him tightly. Charlie laughs and hugs her back.

"I'm glad you like it, kiddo. Now why don't you get dressed, then come downstairs?" he asks moving back. She nods.

"Okay, can you help me put this on first?" She motions to the bracelet. He nods and hooks it around her right wrist when she holds it out. He leaves the room, and Kat quickly gets dressed, in black jeans, with black high tops, a light blue tank top, with a darker blue plaid button up, which she leaves unbuttoned. She puts on a silver dream catcher pendent, and some silver stud earrings, pulling her hair up into a pony tail. She grabs her cellphone off her side table slipping it into her pocket, and heads down the stairs. When she gets to the bottom her eyes widen, a large group of people are there. A large banner that reads 'Happy Birthday Kat' hangs in the living room.

"Surprise!" They all yell, some of them setting off confetti poppers. She stares shocked. Charlie moves over to her with a grin, leading a teen girl about her age, with long brown hair, and brown eyes over to her.

"Kat, this is your sister Isabella, she goes by Bella. Bella this is your new sister Katrina, she goes by Kat." Charlie introduces them. Bella smiles at Kat, and holds out her hand to her.

"It's nice to meet you, Kat." She says with a sweet smile. Kat grins back at her.

"It's nice to meet you too… I always wanted a sister." She shakes her hand.

"So did I…" She grins as well. A woman with brown hair walks over. "Oh, this is my mom, Renee. Mom, this is Kat." Bella introduces them.

"Oh, it's wonderful to meet you, Katrina." Renee tells her with a smile. Kat nods.

"It's nice to meet you too." Renee walks over to talk with Charlie a bit, Bella follows curiously. Kat grins as Billy Black rolls over to her.

"Happy Birthday, Kat." He tells her with a smile. She grins back at him.

"Thanks Billy!" He leans forward pulling her into a hug. She hugs him back happily.

"Happy Birthday, Kat!" She pulls back looking over as Jacob runs up to her. He smiles at his dad, before dragging Kat off to meet some of his friends. Introducing her to the Clearwater's officially, and to anyone else who had come that he knew. The party had been great; Kat had received a lot of great books, a few video games, and a few more dream catchers. She got a homemade blanket from the Clearwater's, and a few old books from Bella. Renee had gotten her a cute stuffed cat. Billy had carved her a charm for her bracelet, of the Quileute tribe symbol, which she happily hooked to the bracelet.

Bella and Renee stayed for the next few days, Renee having taken Bella out of school for the trip. Kat and Bella became instant friends. They promised to keep in touch.

-Line Break-

AN:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please no flames. I am fine with constructive criticism; but please leave it in a polite manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to improve, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out, this is a rewrite and I changed the tense when I edited/ rewrote it and there are probably at least a few errors I missed. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

~ Kat


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Stephanie Myer and others who own the copy write I do not know them all. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment purposes and am making no money from this.

-I do own any unrecognized characters. Please do not use my characters or my world without my permission. (Ask I'm likely to say yes.)-

AN:

I will hopefully have more reviews to respond too in these author notes soon. But until then these will either be very short or have updates about what is going on with this story, my life, and other stories on this account.

Reedy1012: Thank you so much for the review on chapter one all those months ago. I am so sorry I never got this updated until now. I really did plan to update regularly, but I tend to suck at that. My life just gets too crazy to keep to that kind of schedule. Personally I think it gets much better later on, although I am a bit biased. I know the writing in general gets better as time goes on, especially after the 100,000 word mark as that part is more recent. I hope you like what I have planned! : 3

Now on with the story!

-Line Break-

"It's better to have your nose in a book, than in someone else's business." – Adam Stanley

It was September 4th, 2002. It had been just over four months, since Kat had been adopted, and her life had never been better. She had been home schooled by a tutor for the last bit of 8th grade, due to the amount she had missed in the hospital. Her and Charlie had flown to Disneyland to spend three weeks during July, to have vacation with Bella. They had originally planned a different trip, but when Bella had heard Kat had never been to Disneyland, she had their dad change the plans.

The rest of the summer had been spent either, going fishing with Charlie, hanging at home with Charlie, or hanging out on the reservation. She loved the bonfires, and the stories they told at them. She had spent multiple afternoons talking on the phone with her old foster brother Daniel Jackson. He was now living with his aunt in New York, so he would use calling her as a way to stay up past his bed time, much to Kat's amusement.

Today was Kat's first day of High School. Going to a new school, didn't worry her, she'd done it hundreds of times in the past. No, in fact she was excited. This would be the first school she had gone too, since she had been adopted. Meaning for the first time, she wasn't the weird foster kid. Plus, it was High School, if books and TV shows where to be believed, these would be the best four years of her life. Kat had spent an hour the night before picking out an outfit, much to her father's amusement, as she normally, didn't care that much about what she wore.

She had decided on a pair of Black skinny jeans, a silver long sleeved button-up shirt, with her black leather jacket she'd added silver stitching to. She added her silver high tops, black dream catcher pendent, black rose earrings, and her charm bracelet, that she wore every day. She had a Star Trek messenger bag for her school things. She packed her bag, and walked downstairs, finding her Dad reading the paper, with a cup of coffee and toast, she had a slice of peanut butter cinnamon sugar toast on a plate waiting for her, with a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper, and a bottle of water. She was lactose intolerant, not too badly, but she tried to avoid having just straight up milk if possible.

"Good morning." Charlie says smiling at her. She sits down and starts eating.

"Morning, Dad. Thanks for the toast." She smiles at him. He nods back to her with a smile and goes back to his paper.

"Alright, you ready to go?" He asks a little bit later. She nods standing up, and following him out to the police cruiser. She gets in the passenger seat. "Good luck, try to make some friends." He suggests, as they pull up to the school. She nods.

"I will, bye dad." She leans over and kisses his check, before climbing out of the car and heading into the school.

She learned by the end of her first period, English, that the kids in this school, loved to gossip, and she was the main target. In math, the teacher had to ask two of the other freshmen girls, Jessica Stanley and Lauren Mallory, to be quiet more than once, because they were whispering about her. She just rolled her eyes and kept her head down. At lunch she sat by herself in the back of the cafeteria, pulling out a book, and reading while she ate, ignoring the gossip, having been used to it in her old schools.

By the time school was over she was more than pissed off by most of the schools population, their where a few nice people, Angela Weber, Ben Cheney, and even Jessica could be nice when she wanted to be, but the rest, where ether constantly gossiping about her, or hitting on her, Mike Newton being the worst. She walks the mile home, and heads into the house, starting to make dinner so it will be ready when Charlie got home.

-Line Break-

"Sometimes happiness is like a missing sock. You know it will turn up eventually, but it will probably be in the strangest place." – Unknown

"Merry Christmas!" Kat jumps onto her dad's bed waking him up. He looks up at her tiredly, but smiling a bit.

"Merry Christmas…. I'll be down in a few minutes." He chuckles. Kat nods and runs down stairs, making herself some hot cocoa and Charlie some coffee, as she waited for him.

"Here you go." She hands him the coffee with a grin. "So… stockings and then presents?" She asks hopefully. He nods.

"Of course." The two head into the living room, Kat handing Charlie his stocking while grabbing hers. They open them, examining the small trinkets they found inside. Kat had gotten a snowflake charm with the year 2002 written on it, in her stocking. She quickly attached it to her bracelet and moved to passing out their presents. She had gotten a few old books from Billy, Jacob, and the Clearwater's. Both her and Charlie had gotten sweaters from Bella and Renee. Kat had made Charlie multiple presents, and bought him one as well.

Charlie smiled widely laughing, when he opened the first present from her, a mug with the words 'World's Greatest Dad… or at least Fork's' on it, with a background of evergreen trees. The second gift was a carved picture frame, Billy had helped her make, with a picture of the two of them having a snowball fight at Billy's place the week before, inside it. The final gift she had saved up for, it was a new fishing rod she knew he had wanted. Charlie smiles happily and leans over hugging her tightly.

"Thank You, Kat." He says happily. Kat hugs him back just as tightly grinning.

"Thank you, for wanting me." She mutters.

"I love you sweetheart." He tells her softly. She hugs him tighter burying her face in his shoulder, she had wanted to hear that her whole life.

"I love you too, Dad." She says back. Charlie wipes at his eyes, clearly trying to hide the tears in them when they pull back.

"Open up your presents." He motions to what he had gotten her. She opens the first present, smiling at the cat plushie. The next one was a locket, on the back it had the date of her adoption with the inscription 'My lovely cygnet.' The front has a Swan carved into it. When she opens it, there is a picture of them from her adoption day, and one of them in Disneyland with Bella. Kat puts it on, than turns throwing her arms around her dad in a crushing hug.

"I love them… I love you." She tells him happily. Charlie laughs hugging her back.

"We have a few hours before we need to be at Billy's for dinner. What do you want do?" She pulls back smiling. Picking up some of her old books and curling up on the couch to read. Charlie just chuckles and turns on the TV. The two spend the day reading and watching TV, and go to the Blacks for Christmas dinner.

-Line Break-

"I think I've always been half out of my shell and half in. Sometimes I can be extremely wild and sometimes I can be extremely shy. It just depends on the day." – Emile Hirsch

Kat sat in her 3rd period art class, looking up as the teacher calls their attention. Next to Miss A, stood two teenagers, a short girl with black pixie like hair spiked in every direction, and a tall boy with messy blond hair.

"Class welcome two of our five new students, this is Alice Cullen, and Jasper Hale. Kat would you please raise your hand? You two can sit at Kat's table, she normally sits alone, why don't you keep her company?" She motions to Kat in the back. Kat raises her hand like asked. The two nods and walk back to her table, taking seats across from her.

"Hi, I'm Alice." The girl says holding out her hand to shake with a large grin. Kat smiles back and shakes her hand, noticing how cold it is but not mentioning it.

"I'm Katrina Swan, but I go by Kat. Welcome to Forks." She smiles looking between Alice and Jasper. Jasper was sitting very still, looking pained, but he gives her a nod.

"Swan? As in the chief of police?" Alice asks.

"Yeah, he's my dad." Kat nods turning back to her current art project as they talk, continuing to cut up a plastic bottle for her sculpture.

"That's nice; I thought his daughter lived with her mom in Arizona."

"Oh, Yeah, That's my sister Bella." She explains.

"Why don't you live with your mom as well?"

"She's not my mom… Bella is my dad's biological daughter, I'm adopted."

"Oh, so are we." Alice smiles, pulling out a piece of paper and starting to sketch on it.

"Really?" Kat stops what she's doing to look at them.

"Yeah, both of us and our siblings, our parents, Carlisle and Esme can't have children." She explains.

"Wow… did you spend much time in the system?"

"Some of us more than others." Alice smirks a bit.

"Sucks doesn't it? I spent nearly 14 years in the system before I ended up with Dad."

"Aren't you 14?" Jasper speaks up. Kat looks at him, hearing the slight southern accent. This was the first time she'd heard him speak.

"Yeah… I was adopted last May, I turned 14 right after." She nods.

"Oh, well I'm glad you found a family." Alice smiles at her. "We were all adopted ages ago."

"Thanks." Kat glances over to the table closest to them hearing some kids snicker, she narrows her eyes. "I need to apologize in advance; kids here seem to love gossip… I was the last subject of their interest, but as your now the newest people to town… I think you've taken the spotlight."

"Oh it's alright, we're used to it." Alice waves her off.

"How many siblings do you have?"

"There are five of us. Rosalie, Jasper's older sister and Emmett are sophomores, whereas Edward, Jasper, and I are freshmen."

"Wow… I've just got Bella and she's in Arizona, although I guess you could count my old foster brother Daniel… He's still like a little brother to me, but he lives with his aunt in New York now so…" she shrugs.

"What's your schedule like? We might have more classes together?" Alice asks. Kat pulls her schedule out of her binder passing it over.

"Well, I have English with you first period, and it looks like Jasper has History with you next period, Edward has science with you." Alice says after reading it.

"Great, maybe people I can talk to, that I can actually stand for once." Kat grins.

"What about your other friends?"

"I get along okay with Angela and Ben, but everyone else just manage to piss me off." She shrugs. "I have friends on the reservation, but that's because dad introduced us, and I can only see them when my dad and I head out there, because none of us can really drive."

"Well you officially have a new best friend." Alice declares. Kat grins.

"I have a feeling I don't have a choice in this." She snickers.

"Nope." Alice says popping the p. They look up as the bell rings; Kat quickly puts her work in her cubby, and grabs her stuff.

"What do you have now Alice?"

"Math."

"Third door on your right down the left hall." Kat tells her then turns to Jasper.

"I can show you the way to history if you want?"

"That would be appreciated ma'am." He says with a slight smile. Kat blushes at the term.

"Uh, this way." She says leading him down the hallway. Jasper is watching her as they go.

"Mr. Snead, this is Jasper Hale, one of the new students." Kat introduces them as they come into the class.

"Alright, he's next to you, Katrina." Kat nods and leads Jasper to their shared desk.

"Get ready for a very boring class… Mr. Snead tends to either make us just copy the power point while he reads it, or he goes off on a tangent." She warns him. He nods, sitting as far from her at the desk as he can. She looks at him confused, than shakes her head, getting out her notebook.

The class goes by very slowly, Kat not being able to help but glace at Jasper every few minutes, watching him write his notes, while staring directly at the teacher, and still leaning away from her. When the bell rings she jumps, as Jasper rushes from the room quickly.

"Okay then…. What the hell did I do?" she mutters to herself, as she packs up her things, and heads to lunch.

She goes to her usual table, at the back, noticing who had to be the other three Cullen's sitting at the one near her. She takes her seat, pulling out her book, and starting to read while eating.

"Hi Kat, can I sit with you?" She looks up as Alice walks over with her lunch tray.

"Sure." She marks her place in the book, closing it. "I don't know what I did, but I don't think your brother likes me too much."

"You mean Jasper? No he wasn't feeling well, he went home sick a few minutes ago."

"Oh…" Kat nods. "Uh, tell him I hope he feels better."

"I will. He said he thought he freaked you out, when he ran from the room… he was trying not to puke on anyone." Kat nods. "So, you have Science next with my brother Edward, he's the one with the bronze hair, who is staring at us." Alice motions to the other table, raising an eyebrow at him. Kat turns, and waves at them.

"We have assigned seats, I think Edward will end up assigned next to Angela, she's the only one without a partner right now." Alice nods. "I oh so luckily got assigned Mike." She says sarcastically, scrunching up her face, and nodding to the blond teen, which is currently standing on a chair holding a book away from Angela.

"Oh, that must be a joy." Alice agrees shaking her head.

"Oh yeah, he won't stop hitting on me… I don't think he understands the notion of 'I'm not interested'."

"I hate guys like that."

"Same here, he thinks he's a gift to the world, and I should be honored to date him."

"Oh my god, he is so not boyfriend material."

"I know right." She shakes her head with a sigh, "Do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?" She asks Alice curiously.

"No… But Emmett and Rose are really serious about each other."

"I take it that started after they were both adopted? If it had started while you guys where foster kids, it wouldn't have been allowed."

"Yeah. The rest of us are single though."

"Well I doubt that will change in this town."

"You never know." Alice says with a smirk and shrug. "Want me to throw your trash away with mine, the bells about to ring."

"Yeah, thanks…" Kat nods. "I guess I'll see you later Alice." She grabs her bags, and heads over to the Cullen's table. "Your Edward right?" The boy looks up at her confused but nods. "Alice said you had science with me next, I thought I'd offer to show you the way?" She asks.

"Sure, thank you." He takes his stuff, nods to his siblings, and follows her to the classroom. Looking at her curiously the whole way.

"What? Do I have something in my teeth?"

"No."

"Then why are you staring?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, sorry didn't realize I was." He gives her crocked grin then heads into the classroom. She shakes her head and follows taking her seat. Grinning as she watches Angela tentatively introduce herself to Edward.

After science, Kat had gym. She was okay at some of it, but today they were doing volleyball… not her favorite. It was less than 10 minutes into the first game, when Jessica served it towards her, she went to hit back, stepping wrong, her right leg not moving fast enough, sending her to the ground hard. The teacher had her sit out for the rest of the class, having Mike go and get her an icepack from the nurse. She held it to her leg watching the others in boredom. After class, she changes back into her normal clothes, limping out to the parking lot, to start her slow limp back home.

"Kat!" She turns as Alice runs over to her. "I'm glad I caught you, I wanted to give you my number, so we can text."

"Oh, sure." She passes her phone to Alice, Alice handing her hers as well, to put her number into. Kat quickly does, then takes hers back.

"Are you okay? Your limping?"

"I'm always limping." She points out.

"I noticed, but now it's worse." Alice looks at her worriedly.

"I'm fine, I fell in gym. Just an old injury acting up." She shakes he head.

"Oh, okay, if you're sure… my dad's a doctor, so if it gets bad, text me… okay?"

"Yeah, sure… I'll see you in English tomorrow, bye Alice." Kat tells her turning and starting home.

-Line Break-

AN:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please no flames. I am fine with constructive criticism; but please leave it in a polite manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to improve, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out, this is a rewrite and I changed the tense when I edited/ rewrote it and there are probably at least a few errors I missed. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

~ Kat


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Stephanie Myer and others who own the copy write I do not know them all. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment purposes and am making no money from this.

-I do own any unrecognized characters. Please do not use my characters or my world without my permission. (Ask I'm likely to say yes.)-

AN:

I'm excited to see how many people have liked the story so far! I hope you all continue to enjoy as we go along here.

babesbraves: Thank you so much for your review. I'm glad you like it.

Guest(Chapter 3): Thank you for the review. I can't wait to see all your reactions to certain scenes later!

On to the story!

-Line Break-

After two weeks, Kat was getting very worried. Jasper still wasn't back in school. Alice had assured her, he was fine, apparently after getting over the flu, he had gone back south to visit family. But she couldn't stop thinking of the pained look on his face. Kat sighs walking up to the school building in the rain. Once inside, she walks to her class, going over to Alice.

"Did you walk today?" Alice asks looking her over.

"What do you think?" She says back with a raised eyebrow, as she motions to her soaked clothing.

"That's horrible."

"You're lucky; your sister can drive you."

"If she couldn't our dad would, we live too far to walk." Kat shrugs.

Math was a trying affair that day, Jessica and Lauren just loving her soaked appearance, and snickering about it the entire class. She sighed in relief when she finally could head to art. It was by far her favorite class; she spent most days working on her art projects, while talking with Alice. She grabs her project out of her cubby, getting to work. Only looking up when two chairs where pulled out from the table. Standing next to Alice, was Jasper, his gold eyes looking at her in concern.

"Alice wasn't kidding when she said you were soaked…"

"No" Kat shakes her head, going back to her project.

"You okay Kat?" Alice asks, not used to Kat being short with people.

"Yeah, I'm fine… just annoyed." She says glancing up at her friend. Jasper is nodding, but looking at her worriedly still. Alice starts her own work, and starts up a conversation with Jasper, asking random questions to Kat every little bit, to try and get her to join in. Kat just answers quietly, than goes back to being silent. Kat cleans up quickly when the bell rings, grabbing her stuff and heading to her next class, Jasper walking beside her silently.

The two sit down in history. This time Jasper sitting next to her normally. Kat pulls out her notebook, and just leans against the desk. Making a small growling sound under her breath, when Jessica makes a loud comment about her looking like a drowned rat to Lauren, a few seats over. Jasper just raises an eyebrow at the sound. She notices this and just puts her head on the desk. She sits up when Mr. Snead starts talking, and takes her notes, every so often sending a small glare at Jessica and Lauren. She packs up and heads to lunch, Jasper walking next to her silently again. Alice is already sitting at their table, when she gets there. Jasper sits down next to Alice.

"How was history?" Alice asks them.

"Well, Kat was growling at Jessica and Lauren, so that was interesting." Jasper tells his sister.

"I growled under my breath, not at them." Kat defends herself, crossing her arms. "They were being annoying… as usual." Kat tells Alice.

"I would love to see you actually growl at them, I wonder how they'd react."

"Probably, just make up new insulting nicknames for me." Kat shakes her head. She eats a few bites of her food, and then puts it away in her bag. "I'm gonna head to science early, I'll see you guys later."

"Okay, I'll text you." Alice waves at her as she heads out.

-Line Break-

"You're coming to my house after school today." Alice declares sitting down next to Kat in English.

"I am?"

"Yes, my dad is going to call yours and okay it, then he'll pick us up after school, there isn't enough room in Rose's car."

"Okay… I guess… although I don't think your siblings like me much Alice."

"Oh, they'll be fine. Beside they just don't know you yet. They'll love you once they do." Kat sighs shaking her head.

"Whatever you say, Alice."

The rest of the school day went by very slowly. During math she got a text from Charlie, about her going to the Cullen's giving her the all clear, and telling her Dr. Cullen had a agreed to bring her home around 10. Art was uneventful, Alice talking her and Jasper's ears off, much their usual setting. In History, they watched a very boring video about orphanages in the US, back before the foster system was in place. At lunch, Alice once again talked the whole time. This time however, Jasper started making faces behind her back, making Kat have to force herself not to laugh. But, it wasn't until Gym that things got interesting.

They were going to be climbing a rope, all the way to the ceiling or as high as they could. Kat watched, as kid after kid, got about halfway, or a only a small amount, before either giving up, or falling on the mats below. Finally it was her turn. She went over to the rope, and hoisted herself up it. It took her a few minutes, but she was the first to reach the top.

"Good job, Miss Swan!" The class clapped below, as the teacher called up to her. "Now come down, slowly." She starts down, but about halfway down the rope starts swinging. "Newton, stop that, it is not funny!" She hears the teacher call, just as her grip slips lose. She screams as she fell, landing heavily on the mat, with a loud thump.

"Oh my god, Kat! I am so sorry; I didn't think you'd fall!" Mike yells rushing over to her, the teacher pushing through the students to get over to them. Kat gasps for breath for a moment before sitting up.

"I'm okay, just knocked the wind out of me." She assures the teacher, before they can ask, before glaring at Mike. "You, get away from me." She snaps angrily. Mike immediately moves back, looking guilty. The teacher helps her up, her right leg aching in pain, having been jarred when she hit the mat, although she doesn't say anything. She just moves to the side and watches the other kids try.

After class, she changes and goes outside looking around for Alice. Jumping when she feels a cold hand on her shoulder.

"Alice and Carlisle are parked by Rose's car." Jasper says looking down at her.

"Oh… Thanks." She gives him a small smile. As they head over to the two cars, Jasper slowing to her pace. Next to Rose's red convertible, was a black Mercedes. Alice was in the passenger seat, talking with a young man in the driver's seat.

"I'm riding with you guys." Jasper tells her, opening the car door for her.

"Thanks." She tells him blushing slightly slipping into the car. Jasper just gives her small grin.

"No problem ma'am." He closes the door, then goes around to the other side.

"You must be Kat, I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." The man in the driver's seat turns to look at her.

"Nice to meet you too, Dr. Cullen."

"Oh just Carlisle, please." He smiles kindly at her. She smiles back and nods. They drive off, going a bit out of town, before turning down a unmarked side road that is slightly overgrown. At the end of the road is a beautiful house. They pull up outside it. Kat climbing out.

"Whoa, your house is amazing." She says looking up at it with wide eyes.

"Thank you, my wife, Esme, she likes to design houses." Carlisle tells her. The four of them head inside, as the others pull up behind them. "Are you alright?" Carlisle asks motioning to her limp.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine." Kat nods quickly.

"Did something happen in gym again? You weren't limping this badly at lunch." Alice asks her, as they enter the house.

"I'm fine, Alice." She rolls her eyes at her friend's worried tone.

"Kat this is my wife, Esme." Kat looks, as a beautiful women walks over to her.

"Oh it's wonderful to meet you, Kat." She says moving forward and pulling Kat into a hug. Kat smiles softly and hugs her back.

"Nice to meet you too."

"Come on, Kat, I'll show you my room." Alice chimes in happily, skipping forward and grabbing Kat's hand, pulling her off up the stairs quickly. Kat stumbles behind after her, giving an apologetic wave to the others as they go. Esme just shakes her head laughing.

"I am giving you a makeover." Alice declares, as they enter her bedroom. Kat is amazed by the window wall, having only caught a glimpse of it downstairs.

"Sure, whatever you want Alice, so long as you don't cut or dye my hair." Kat shrugs, sitting on the edge of Alice's bed. The two talk about random things, while Alice does her hair, and make-up.

"Dinner is ready." The two look up, seeing Emmett standing in the doorway. "Rose and I are going out, but Esme told me to get you guys first."

"Thanks Emmett." Alice smiles at him, then pulls Kat up, leading her back downstairs. Five places are set at the table, Carlisle and Esme, are just bringing the last dishes out. Jasper is already sat there. Edward is nowhere in sight.

"I hope you like it, Kat… I wasn't sure what you'd like, so I guessed." Esme tells her with a soft smile. There was roast chicken in front of them, with mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn.

"It looks great, Esme. Chicken is my favorite actually." She tells her with a smile. It smells amazing. They all dish up and start eating.

"So Kat, how long have you been in Forks?" Carlisle asks. "Alice mentioned you were adopted."

"If you mean as in really living here, it will be a year on May 1st, but I've been in the town since the end of January last year."

"Oh, why is that dear?" Esme asks her kindly.

"I was in a hiking accident last January with my foster family. I spent around three and half months in the hospital here, before I was released. Then I went to another foster home in Seattle, until Charlie adopted me." She explains.

"Oh dear, what happened?" Esme asks worriedly.

"The cliff face collapsed. My foster parents and I fell."

"You must have been hurt quite badly to be in the hospital that long."

"I had four broken ribs, a broken arm, broken tibia in my right leg, and I broke my right femur in two places." She lists with a shrug. They all stare at her, looking horrified. "I'm fine now though." She says looking awkwardly between the stares.

"That explains the limp…" Alice says.

"Yup." She shrugs again eating more of her food. Alice quickly changes the subject. The rest of dinner is spent talking about different books, and shows they have seen. After dinner, Alice drags her off to work on their English homework together. Around 9:40, Carlisle drives her home.

"Thank you for the ride doctor… err Carlisle." She catches herself.

"It's no problem Katrina, your welcome over anytime." He smiles at her amusedly. Kat nods and heads inside. Charlie is asleep on the couch. She snickers walking over to him.

"Dad, if you sleep on the couch all night you'll be late for work tomorrow." She says shaking him awake.

"How was your evening with the Cullen's?" Charlie asks sitting up with a yawn.

"It was fun, Alice gave me a makeover… I have a suspicious feeling that is going to happen a lot with her as my friend." Charlie laughs.

"Well you look nice."

"I'm gonna head to bed, night dad. I love you." She hugs him then heads up to her room. She lays there, thinking about how all the Cullen's, looked related, despite the fact they were all supposedly adopted. Not to mention, she noticed that they didn't seem to eat, she had noticed how they had just all pushed the food around their plates, making it look like they had eaten. She knew that's what Alice and Jasper did at school, but had assumed they just didn't like the school lunches like her, but didn't want to bring food like she did. Kat pulls a small notebook out of her desk making a list.

The Cullen's:

Cold

Pale

Golden eyes

Dark bags under eyes

Don't eat

She shakes her head. It didn't add up. She sighs, placing the notebook in her school bag, before going to bed.

-Line Break-

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." – Sherlock Holmes

Kat walks up to Alice after school one day, out in the parking lot.

"I need to talk to you." She says seriously. Alice nods and follows Kat as she leads her into the woods behind the school.

"What is it Kat?"

"I knew you guys weren't normal… that you couldn't be human…" She says quietly looking at her best friend. Alice stares at her. "Do you kill people Alice?"

"No… we don't hunt humans… If we did, our eyes would be red." Alice says quickly, worry clear on her face.

"And your eyes are gold… okay… then that's that." She states firmly.

"You're not afraid of us?"

"No…"

"You don't want to know more about us?"

"I'm not going to make you guys tell me all your secrets, unless you want too… Just like I wouldn't want you to make me tell mine." She explains. "I needed to know if I was best friends with… well… monsters… But, you're not... so…" She shrugs.

"Can I call you after I talk to my family?"

"Of course, your still my best friend… hell, you and Jasper are my only friends…" Alice moves forward and hugs her tightly. Kat hugs her back.

"I'll tell you all you want to know, I promise… I just need to talk to the others first..." Kat nods.

"I should get home… I'll talk to you later, Alice." Kat says turning and heading home.

She had been writing observations about them in her notebook for two months, after she first came to their house… She hadn't even been close to guessing, until she had gone to a bonfire on the reservation the week before… The cold ones… it fit so perfectly. After that it only took a bit of digging on the internet. Her best friends where vampires… god, could her life get any weirder.

-Line Break-

AN:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please no flames. I am fine with constructive criticism; but please leave it in a polite manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to improve, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out, this is a rewrite and I changed the tense when I edited/ rewrote it and there are probably at least a few errors I missed. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

~ Kat


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Stephanie Myer and others who own the copy write I do not know them all. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment purposes and am making no money from this.

-I do own any unrecognized characters. Please do not use my characters or my world without my permission. (Ask I'm likely to say yes.)-

AN:

I love how much people seem to like the story so far. I remember when I was first writing this how much fun it was. I can't wait to see what people think of some of the later chapters. I'm hoping I'll get a few more reviews. I'd tell you to send me review with ideas but this is very largely prewritten for the first like 160,000 words. :) However if people want to send me quotes I'm always in need of new ones while writing this.

On with the story!

-Line Break-

"What do you mean she knows Alice?" Rosalie snaps glaring at the shorter girl.

"Just what I said… when she wanted to talk after school… she knows, she doesn't care." She explains.

"Why didn't you see this coming?" Edward asks.

"I saw her figuring it out, but it was months from now… something changed, something I didn't see... Although she is reacting exactly how I saw she would, only months earlier… and instead of talking to Jasper about it… she came to me."

"This is a disaster." Rosalie shakes her head.

"Alice, are you sure she won't tell anyone?" Carlisle asks. She nods.

"I'm positive… I have never seen her stray from keeping it a secret… she has some type of secret of her own… something that makes her understand the need to hide… I just don't know what…"

"Yeah, right… we should get rid of her… make sure she never tells." Rosalie growls.

"No… you won't touch her… you know what I'll do to you if you do." Jasper growls.

"Jasper… I think it's time you gave in, and asked her out… She knows now… She'll understand any restriction you put on the relationship." Alice pushes.

"I could slip up, and then she'd be… I can't risk that Alice… The thought of her dead…" He trails off, shaking his head.

"Jasper… she's your mate… your one… you need her." Alice puts a hand on his shoulder. "You're already friends… just ask her out… try it… you won't hurt her." Jasper sighs looking at her.

"Okay… I'll try…" Alice stares into the distance as a vision overtakes her, once done she grins.

"Don't give up the first time you ask… she's going to be playing a bit hard to get…" Alice giggles. Jasper shakes his head.

"Sounds like her, she's stubborn." He smiles.

"Alice… why don't you call her. I can go pick her up, then we can sit down and talk this through with her." Carlisle suggests, smiling at his son.

"Okay."

-Line Break-

Kat climbed out of the Mercedes, following Carlisle into the house. Esme is sitting on one of the loveseats in the living room, Edward, is sitting on his piano bench, and Alice and Jasper are sitting on the couch. Rosalie and Emmett aren't there. Carlisle goes and sits beside Esme, Kat sits between Alice and Jasper.

"So, I assume you have some questions?" Carlisle asks her with his signature kind smile.

"Plenty."

"Ask away."

"What happens when you go out in the sun? I assume you don't burst into flames and die?"

"No, the sun doesn't hurt us… as for what it does…" He is cut off by Alice.

"You have to wait to learn that… One of us will show you at some point… just know, it would give us away." She smirks.

"Okay… do you sleep?"

"No."

"Alice said you don't eat humans, that's why your eyes are gold, and not red… what do you eat?"

"We only feed on animals, our lifestyle however is not shared by many others of our kind. We call ourselves vegetarians."

"Vegetarian vampires…" She smirks, snorting slightly in laughter. "Okay, now I have heard it all. I know you have enhanced senses… but what senses?"

"All of them, our sight, hearing, smell, it's all extremely more powerful than a humans. We also have super strength and speed."

"The perfect predators… hah… and we humans thought we were the top of the food chain…" She shakes her head smirking a bit. "I would love to shove this knowledge in the face of some of the arrogant pricks I've met." She snickers. "I won't tell anyone what you are… I promise…" She looks at each of them.

"Thank you… and thank you for excepting us." Carlisle tells her.

"No problem, thank you for putting up with me." She grins at him. He chuckles a bit.

"I happen to like you, even if you are insane." Alice giggles.

"Well, what can I say, I went off the deep end years ago… I just sort of roll with shit like this now."

"Some of us have special ability's… I can see the future." Alice tells her with a grin. Kat raises an eyebrow at her.

"Then how come you didn't see me figuring out what you where, you were pretty shocked?"

"My visions are subjective, I see the path people are on, if the path changes so do the visions."

"Cool, so time isn't a certain thing… good to know. Do the rest of you have special ability's?"

"Edward and Jasper do, the rest of us don't." Carlisle says.

"What can you guys do?"

"I can read minds…" Edward says. "But for some reason, I only get bits and pieces of yours."

"I can happily live with that." She smirks at him.

"It's frustrating…" he sighs.

"What about you, what's your special power, Jasper?"

"I can read and manipulate others emotions." Jasper smiles down at her.

"I have a suspicious feeling you've used it on me before?"

"Yes, I have… but only to cheer you up, or to keep you from punching someone." He explains. Kat smiles and nods. Then looks down when her phone rings.

"Sorry, I need to take this."

"It's alright."

"Hi Ainsley, what's up?" Kat answers.

"Kat, I'm coming into town to see you tomorrow, I'll be there around noon."

"Okay… why?"

"I'll explain once I'm there… just… be careful… Don't talk to anyone you don't know in town, okay?"

"Yeah, I don't tend to anyways. But I can do that… I'll see you tomorrow then… I guess."

"Like I said… be careful." She hangs up the phone. Kat shakes her head.

"What was that all about?" Alice asks.

"I don't know… you're the physic, not me…" She sighs. "Something is up though, or Ainsley wouldn't be freaking out… I guess I'll find out tomorrow."

"Do you want one of us to stay nearby in case something happens?" Alice asks.

"No. I can handle it." Kat says firmly.

"I should get you home, before Charlie starts to worry." Carlisle says standing up.

"Yeah, thanks Carlisle. I'll text you." She tells Alice giving the others a nod before heading out.

-Line Break-

"Hate, it had caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet." – Maya Angelou

Kat had waited all of Saturday for Ainsley to show, but she never did. She had tried calling her cell, but got nothing. She finally called the Seattle CPS office where Ainsley worked. According to her boss, she had left to take a kid to their family in California that morning. Kat told them about the call, and they promised to look into it.

A month had passed since Kat had discovered the secret, and since Ainsley had disappeared. She had never made it to her flight… and her truck was found parked only a few miles outside of Forks. Carlisle, Alice, and Jasper had tried tracking her sent, but had all reached dead ends.

Kat rolls over in her bed, looking at a picture of her and Ainsley from her 10th birthday. Ainsley had been the closest thing she had to family growing up… Now… she was just gone… disappeared, without a trace. What had she been so afraid of? She grabs her phone as it starts ringing.

"Hello?"

"Kat?"

"Ainsley? Where are you?" Kat sits up on her bed clutching the phone.

"Kat… if you see a women with a butterfly tattoo on her right wrist, you run… do you hear me? You run… I have to go… take care of yourself… make sure you run." The line goes dead.

"Ainsley? Ainsley?" Kat looks down at her phone in shock for a moment. Before jumping off the bed and running downstairs, just as her dad gets home. "Dad! You won't believe who just called!"

"Katrina, I need you to sit down." He looks at her.

"What?"

"Katrina sit down." He motions to the couch. She doesn't move…

"What's going on?"

"Kat…"

"I'm not sitting down… what's wrong?" Charlie walks up to her, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"The search team found Ainsley… They think something scared her into the woods… then she tripped, she fell down a small cliff…" Kat stares up at him.

"It's been a month… if she fell down a cliff… that would mean she's dead… but that… that's not possible…"

"I'm so sorry, Kat." Charlie looks at her sadly.

"No… no… That's not… no." She shakes her head, moving back. "They're wrong, it's not her."

"Katrina…"

"No… I won't believe it… not, not unless I see the body…" Kat says clenching her fists.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"They'll need someone to identify her, right? I can do that…"

"Katrina, no."

"She's not dead." Charlie sighs, running a hand through his hair.

"Fine… I'll take you there…" She gets her shoes and goes out to the cruiser. She stays silent, staring down at her phone, until they get to the hospital. Charlie talks to one of the nurses, who makes a call. Carlisle walks up to them, giving Kat an apologetic look. He leads them to the morgue, to a body covered by a white sheet.

"Are you sure you want to see this Katrina?" Carlisle asks her. She nods stepping forward stubbornly. Charlie sighs and motions for Carlisle to move the sheet.

"No… no… no, no, no, no, no…" Kat backs away tears stinging her eyes. It was Ainsley, there was no mistaking that face, or the rose tattoo under her ear… Kat had been the one to choose the tattoo when she was four… "No…" she lets out a sob. Charlie wraps his arms around her, holding her tightly. She sobs into him. Carlisle covers the body back up. Charlie and Carlisle lead her to a different room.

-Line Break-

"Do you ever just smell an old perfume or hear an old song, or pass an old hangout spot, and it really breaks you inside for a couple minutes?" – Unknown

The funeral was that weekend, Ainsley's boss had handled it. Charlie and Kat drove out to Seattle for it. The funeral was held outside, to fit the amount of people there. There had to be over 200, most of them old foster kids or foster family's Ainsley had helped. When she got back, Kat was quiet… She didn't talk much during classes, and had stopped responding to Alice's texts. She didn't cry, or yell, or break down… She didn't do anything. She just went through the motions of the day. Kat was sitting on her bed listening to music on her iPod…

"Where is the moment when we needed the most? You kick up the leaves, and the magic is lost. They tell me your blue skies faded to gray. They tell me your passions gone away, and I don't need no carrying on…" Kat lets out a sob, as the song starts playing, it was Ainsley's favorite.

"You stand in the line just to hit a new low… You're faking a smile with the coffee to go… You tell me your life's been way off line… You're falling to pieces every time… And I don't need no carryin' on…" After each failed foster home, Ainsley would put Bad Day on in the car, and they would sing at the tops of their lungs, until they got to the new house.

"Cause you had a bad day. You're taking one down. You sing a sad song just to turn it around. You say you don't know. You tell me don't lie. You work at a smile and you go for a ride. You had a bad day. The camera don't lie. You're coming back down and you really don't mind. You had a bad day… You had a bad day…" She sings along to the chorus softly.

"Well, you need a blue sky holiday. The point is they laugh at what you say. And I don't need no carryin' on…" She got her blue sky holiday… she got her family… her 'forever home'…

"Cause you had a bad day. You're taking one down. You sing a sad song just to turn it around. You say you don't know. You tell me don't lie. You work at a smile and you go for a ride. You had a bad day. The camera don't lie. You're coming back down and you really don't mind. You had a bad day… You had a bad day… oh, on a holiday…" She cries quietly, a small smile on her face.

"Sometimes the system goes on the blink. And the whole thing turns out wrong. You might not make it back and you know; that you could be well, oh, that strong… And I'm not wrong… yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…" She sings along to this… Whatever had happened to Ainsley, she had somehow called Kat, long after she would have been dead… Kat would figure it out… someday…

"So where is the passion when you need it the most… Oh, you and I… You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost… Cause you had a bad day. You're taking one down. You sing a sad song just to turn it around. You say you don't know. You tell me don't lie. You work at a smile and you go for a ride. You had a bad day. You've seen what you like… And how does it feel for one more time… You had a bad day… You had a bad day… Had a bad day… Had a bad day… Had a bad day… Had a bad day… Had a bad day…" The song fades out.

"Thank You, Ainsley… for everything." She whispers, staring out her window at the stars in the sky.

-Line Break-

AN:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please no flames. I am fine with constructive criticism; but please leave it in a polite manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to improve, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out, this is a rewrite and I changed the tense when I edited/ rewrote it and there are probably at least a few errors I missed. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

~ Kat


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Stephanie Myer and others who own the copy write I do not know them all. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment purposes and am making no money from this.

-I do own any unrecognized characters. Please do not use my characters or my world without my permission. (Ask I'm likely to say yes.)-

AN:

Another day, another chapter! Hope you all enjoy!

-Line Break-

"Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do." – Brene Brown

Kat shot the basket, successfully winning the game for her team. She grins as Jessica and Mike run over to her, cheering. They had been playing against the sophomore 6th period gym class, the winning class, got the pool for the rest of the year. She smirks, giving Emmett a nod, as he stands off to the side with his team. He gives her a thumbs up. She goes in and changes back into normal clothing, heading out to her dad's police cruiser.

"Happy Adoption day, kiddo." He grins at her.

"Thanks dad." She laughs.

"How was school?"

"I won the basketball game in gym… my class gets the pool for the rest of the year now."

"Good job." They pull up at the house. "Let me go get changed and then we can head to dinner at the diner." She nods pulling out her phone, texting Alice. After around half an hour, Charlie finally comes back out, and they drive to the diner. They go inside.

"Surprise!" Kat laughs, shaking her head. She spends the next hour, being dragged around by Jacob and Seth. She can see Billy glancing at the Cullen's every few minutes, frowning. She shakes her head, he'd have to deal with her hanging with them. She ends up with a lot more old books, a few rarer ones from Carlisle, Esme, and Jasper. A leather jacket from Alice, and some CD's from Edward. The party ran a bit late, but when she got home, she found a small box on her computer desk. She slowly opens it. Inside is a rose charm…

"Ainsley…" she mutters picking it up, she puts it on her bracelet. She gets ready for bed, when she comes back to her room, the box is gone, but the charm remains where she had placed it.

-Line Break-

"Having real friends is so much better than having more friends." – Unknown

Most of the summer had come and past. She was 15, and so her dad had let her have more freedom. So long as she responded when he texted, and was home by curfew she could do what she liked… Her and Charlie had gone to see Bella again, this time in Arizona. They spent the end of June and start of July there. Kat had gotten sunburned multiple times, and was honestly ready to be back in Forks. The rest of the summer was spent with the Cullen's or researching ghosts. She was determined to find out what was going on.

It was August now, she was sitting on her bed reading one of her books, when someone knocks on the front door. She quickly jumps up, going downstairs to open the door. Standing in the doorway is Jasper.

"Oh, hey Jasper, what's up?" She asks. He pulls a single Lily from behind his back, holding out to her. She takes it looking confused. "What's this for?"

"I was hoping you'd do me the honor of going on a date with me ma'am?" Jasper asks smiling at her widely. Kat looks down at the flower and then back up at him. He was really cute… or more like hot… and she really liked him…

"I'm sorry, Jasper… I don't think I'm really ready… to date." She says awkwardly, blushing. Jasper nods, his smile failing a bit.

"That's alright, I understand… The flowers still for you." He adds, before turning and walking off back to Emmett's jeep. Kat sighs. And goes inside, putting the Lily in a vase, she takes it up to her room.

-Line Break-

Kat looks up from her book, as her phone went off, she picks it up. A text from Jasper.

'Would you go out with me?' Kat shakes her head, this was the third time he'd asked that month. It was annoying, but also a bit enduring. He didn't treat her any differently when not asking, but wouldn't seem to be giving up. She tosses her phone on her side table and goes back to her book, she would sleep on it this time…

Kat woke to a light next to her bed, a piece of paper floated there, before the light disappeared, and the paper floated to the ground. Kat quickly sits up, turning on her lamp, she snatches the paper from the ground reading it.

'Life is too short to worry about stupid things. Have fun. Fall in love. Regret nothing, and don't let people bring you down. – Unknown' next to the quote is a small sketch of a rose… Kat stares at it, then puts it in her notebook she had started about Ainsley...

"You always did know what to say to me." She mutters with a shake of her head. She picks up her cell phone, opening the text conversation with Jasper.

'Yes.' She sends the simple answer, watching her phone for a response.

'Really?'

'Yes, really.'

'I'll pick you up at 6 tomorrow… or today… It's 4 AM Kat, why are you awake?'

'Human stuff' she smirks down at her phone. 'See you tomorrow, good night.'

'Sleep well darling.' She grins at that, and lays back, slowly falling back asleep.

-Line Break-

"Okay, you look amazing!" Alice says moving back from finishing her hair. Kat looks in the mirror, her hair was done in a simple, yet elegant, braid down her back. She had refused to wear any make-up, but Alice had insisted on doing her hair.

"Thanks Alice, I love it." She looks down at her outfit, a light blue swing style dress, and black flats; she wore a black cardigan over top, with her silver dream catcher pendent, her charm bracelet, and silver stud earrings.

"One last touch." Alice says, slipping a silver star clip in hair. "Now it's perfect." They hear a knock on the door downstairs, Charlie answering it. Kat takes a breath and grabs her black purse, heading downstairs, Alice following behind her. Jasper stands in the doorway talking with Charlie, he is wearing a pair of black pants, a black button up shirt, and a black jacket over top.

"Her curfew is 10 PM, you know this… just, take care of my girl." Charlie says with a sigh.

"I will have her home on time, I promise Chief Swan." Jasper assures him. Kat smiles walking over.

"Hi…"

"Hello." Jasper grins at her. Charlie sighs and looks at her.

"You have the pepper spray I got you right?"

"Dad!"

"I'm just asking." He grins. She sighs.

"Yes, I'll see you later." She goes outside with Jasper. Alice walking off towards home, breaking off into a run once she's in the forest.

"Sorry about that… he's…"

"Worrying about his daughter… It's alright." Jasper holds out his hand to her. "Shall we?" Kat takes his hand, blushing. He leads her to the Mercedes he had borrowed from Carlisle. He opens the door for her. She smile and gets in. He starts the car and they drive off.

"Where are we going?"

"We are going dancing, in port angles."

"Dancing?"

"There's a dance hall we're going too. I thought it would be something fun we could do." He says with a smile.

"Sounds great to me, but I'm warning you, I am not the best dancer." She smiles back, blushing a bit.

"You don't have to be good to have fun." He points out.

"True." They fall silent, Kat watching the scenery as they drive by it, they were going majorly over the speed limit, but she didn't really care, she was pretty sure Jasper had good enough reflexes to keep them from crashing. After sitting in silence for a bit Jasper looks at her.

"Why'd you finally say yes?" She smiles softly her finger running over the rose charm on her bracelet.

"I took a friends advice." She says looking at him. He smiles back at her, reaching out a hand, and taking hers.

"I'll need to thank this friend of yours."

"I'll pass on the message."

"May I ask why you said no?"

"It's stupid… I didn't want to date, because I didn't want to get hurt, to end up with it just being a hookup…" she says quietly. "I like you to much for that…" They pull into a parking lot. Jasper parks the car then turns to her.

"I can promise you, this is more than that, I care about you. More than you could ever know." She blushes at this, nodding. Jasper gets out of the car, going around and opening her door for her, he holds his hand out to her. She grins and takes it. The two go inside, people are dancing to swing music out on the floor. A small bar area is to the side, tables surround the dance floor. They find a table. Jasper takes off his coat, hanging it on a chair. Kat puts her purse with is. Jasper turns to her with a grin. "May I have this dance darlin'." Kat blushes but takes his hand. He pulls her out onto the dance floor, spinning her around, making her laugh.

The next two hours are a blur, as they spin around the dance floor, Jasper teaching her how to swing dance, and many other old dances. Kat looks around as a slow song starts. Jasper pulls her close, taking her hand in his, the other holding softly on her waist. She grins and puts her free hand on his shoulder.

"I don't really know how to slow dance… just what I've seen in movies." She tells him softly.

"That's alright, just… follow my lead." He says looking down at her. She meets his eyes with her own, dark brown, locking with gold. He slowly turns them in circles, his eyes never leaving hers. After a bit he wraps his arm around her waist, and lifts her up slightly, spinning them around. She laughs holding onto his shoulder and hand tightly. When they stop spinning, he sets her down, leaning his head down towards hers. Kat closes her eyes, as Jasper slowly, and very softly kisses her. It only lasts for a few seconds, but it felt like eternity, a brilliant, amazing eternity. The song ends. Jasper smiles at her softly. "We should get you home, we don't want to break curfew." He says quietly. She blinks and nods.

"Y… yeah." She blushes and follows him to garb their things, they walk out to the car, hand in hand. Jasper opening her car door again. "You really are a southern gentlemen aren't you?"

"Yes, Darlin' I am." He smiles at her, and gets in his side. Starting them on their way back. As they drive back Kat smiles, holding his hand watching the trees fly by.

"And then my soul saw you and it kind of went 'Oh there you are. I've been looking for you.'" Kat mutters quietly to herself. Jasper looks at her, smiling.

"Did you say somethin' Darlin'?" She looks at him, knowing perfectly well that he heard her.

"It's a quote I read online once…" She smiles lightly, looking down at their hands. "It's a thing I used to do… when I was younger, I'd say quote's I felt fit the moment…"

"Why'd you stop?"

"I stopped saying the quotes out loud when I was 12… I was with a foster family for a few weeks who hated them… I didn't want to be yelled at anymore." She shrugs.

"I think it's cute…" he says running his thumb over the back of her hand. She blushes.

"Well the quote does fit."

"Yes, it does." He looks at her lovingly. She blushes, biting her lip, looking away. He chuckles. They pull up outside her house, Jasper opens her door for her, helping her out, and walking her to the front door.

"I had a wonderful night, Jasper."

"So did I, so we can do this again?"

"On one condition." She grins up at him.

"Yeah?"

"We're officially dating."

"That I can agree too." He leans down and kisses her softly before stepping back. "Good night, Darlin'."

"Good night." She watches him go back to the car, driving off, before she goes inside grinning.

"So how'd it go?" Charlie asks as she comes in.

"Wonderfully." She says still grinning widely.

"Well, uh, good… good, I'm glad you had fun." He says awkwardly. She laughs and hugs him.

"Good night dad." She heads up to her room, falling back on the bed with a large grin.

-Line Break-

AN:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please no flames. I am fine with constructive criticism; but please leave it in a polite manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to improve, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out, this is a rewrite and I changed the tense when I edited/ rewrote it and there are probably at least a few errors I missed. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

~ Kat


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Stephanie Myer and others who own the copy write I do not know them all. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment purposes and am making no money from this.

-I do own any unrecognized characters. Please do not use my characters or my world without my permission. (Ask I'm likely to say yes.)-

AN:

Hey everyone! I am so sorry for the delay in updates. Life has been beyond hectic lately. College sucks, or at least it does to me. So does summer when you don't have AC. Anyway no one is here to listen to me rant about life, here's the next chapter. I'll try to remember to post a chapter every day for the next few days if I can. Enjoy the story.

-Line Break-

"It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace." – Chuck Palahniuk

Kat laughs as she watches Emmett and Jasper arguing over what video game to play, Alice was doing her nails while they sat in the Cullen's living room.

"Flip a coin or something, it'd be faster than you two arguing for another hour." Kat suggests still snickering.

"Fine, I'll get a coin, but I call heads." Emmett says.

"It'll be tails." Alice smirks. Emmett glares and gets the coin anyways, flipping it. It spins for a moment then falls still, it was tails, of course.

"Dammit!"

"My game it is." Jasper says with his croaked grin. The two begin their game, about half an hour later, Emmett throws the controller through the wall. Kat jumps, her eyes widening, before she covers her mouth, trying desperately not to laugh.

"Oh, Esme is not going to like that." Alice says grinning.

"I'm… uh… going hunting." Emmett runs from the house. Jasper puts his controller down with a chuckle and moves over to the couch with the girls.

"You two will back me up, that Emmett did it right?"

"Of course." They nod.

"Great." He sits next to Kat, running his fingers down her arm. She smiles at him and looks back at the design Alice is doing on her toenails.

"You do realize, that will be gone in like two days right?"

"Yes, then I'll just do them again." Alice says happily. Kat shakes her head with a teasing grin.

"Of course… I am your dress up doll after all."

"Yup." Jasper snickers at Alice's happy reply. He takes Kat's arm running his finger over her skin, brushing back and forth over old scars. Kat looks down at the scars he's examining.

"Where did you get these?" He asks her quietly.

"Different times and places… depends on which you're asking about." She shrugs.

"This one." He points to a circler one just below the crease of her elbow, four matching ones are scattered across her arms.

"They're cigarette burns." Kat answers, clearly unbothered by the question. Alice frowns looking up at her.

"Who gave them to you?"

"When I was six, I was in a foster home with five other kids, one of them smoked, she was my roommate… she'd put them out on my arm if she thought I was going to rat her out for them." She explains, smiling as Jasper leans down kissing the scars.

"That's horrible, didn't she get in trouble for it?" Alice asks.

"No, but she ended up dead right before I was moved again, I was there for about two months with her, then she got in with the wrong crowd… She stole the wrong guy's wallet, and well… the rest is history."

"And this one?" Jasper runs his finger over a series of X shaped marks running over her upper arm.

"I don't remember those one's, but Ainsley told me, one of my first foster families, when I was a baby… they used to put X's on the kids each time they made a mess." She looks at the scars. "I guess I was a pretty messy baby…"

"That's sick…" Alice says horrified.

"Yeah, well that's a large part of the foster system, there are a lot of bad homes, more bad then good…"

"This one?" Jasper runs a finger over a large scar across her left palm. Kat holds out her right palm to him as well, showing an almost identical scar.

"Those ones I did…"

"Why?"

"A group of friends and I… we became blood siblings when we were 11." She smiles fondly. "It hurt like hell, and we got a lot of shit for all showing up back at our houses cut up… but… it made us family, at least at the time." Jasper kisses each over her palms, then kisses her. She kisses him back softly, sighing when he pulls back as they get more into the kiss.

"You have a lot of scars…" Alice points out.

"Yeah." Kat shrugs.

"You said you were in foster care as a baby… why weren't you adopted?"

"I don't know… people never wanted me." Kat says after a moment of silence, not being entirely truthful.

"It doesn't matter, there are plenty of people who want you now." Jasper says putting an arm around her shoulders. She smiles at him.

"True, I have no idea why? But true…"

"There are so many reasons… you just can't seem to see them." Jasper sighs.

-Line Break-

"Time moves slowly, but passes quickly." – Alice Walker

The summer had gone by quickly and the new school year had begun. Before Kat knew it, it was coming up on Christmas again. It was hard to believe that this time last year, she hadn't known the Cullen's… That there had ever been a point in time without them. But then life tended to be like that, it had been less than two years since she found her home, and she couldn't even imagine leaving it now, living anywhere else. Christmas had always been a bittersweet time for her growing up… either loving or hating it. It truly depended on where she was that year… Now, it was only a happy time… She'd be spending Christmas morning with Charlie at home, then with the Black's on the reservation. But Christmas eve, she'd be at the Cullen's.

Kat looks in the mirror, finishing putting her hair into a bun. She was wearing a evergreen long-sleeved dress, with black tights, and her black flats, She had added a black belt to the dress, and wore her black dream catcher pendent, with her black rose earrings, and her charm bracelet. Her hair was up in a bun, with a black rose clip in the front. She grabs her bag, and her leather jacket, Alice had gotten her for her last adoption day and headed downstairs. Charlie would be giving her a ride over, and Jasper bringing her home around eleven, her curfew having been extended for the holiday. Alice was throwing a party, so Charlie would be staying for a few minutes before heading home.

"Dad, I'm ready to go when you are." She calls as she comes down the stairs.

"I'm ready, you look beautiful." Charlie says with a smile, he's wearing some simple dress pants, with a button up shirt and a tie. The two head out to the car and over to the Cullen's house. The outside is decorated with beautiful Christmas lights. They get out of the car, heading to the door. Kat knocks softly, Charlie leaning past her to knock harder. "They won't hear if you knock that softly, Kat." Kat smirks to herself.

"Katrina, Chief Swan, Come in." Carlisle opens the door with a smile. They go in, Christmas music is playing, and there is a buffet of food by one of the walls, Christmas decorations hang on the walls, looking amazing. A large Christmas tree sits in the living room, by the window wall, as Kat had come to calling it.

"Hey Kat, Hi Charlie." Alice skips over to them, hugging Kat.

"Hey, Alice." Kat hugs her back.

"Hi, Alice." Charlie smile at her.

"Chief Swan." Jasper greats Charlie with a hand shake before turning to Kat.

"Jasper." Charlie gives him a nod. Kat takes Jasper's hand, laughing as he pulls her into the living room, where Rosalie and Emmett are dancing to the music that they can now see Edward is playing on his piano.

"You must be Charlie? Kat has told us so much about you. I'm Esme Cullen." Esme says walking over to Charlie with a large friendly smile.

"It's nice to finally meet you." Charlie smiles back holding out a hand to shake. Kat laughs as Jasper spins her around to the music, grinning as Edward starts playing jingle bell rock, she gives him a thumbs up, loving the song. Edward just gives her a nod and continues playing.

"Jingle bell, jingle bell, Jingle bell rock. Jingle bells swing, and jingle bells ring. Snowing and blowing up bushels of fun; now the jingle hop has begun." Kat starts singing to the piano as Jasper and her dance. Charlie, Esme, and Carlisle stand to the side watching the couples dance.

"Jingle bell, jingle bell, Jingle bell rock. Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time. Dancing and prancing in Jingle Bell Square in the frosty air." Kat laughs as Alice joins her in the song, pulling her away from Jasper to dance with her, much to Jaspers amusement.

"What a bright time, it's the right time, to rock the night away. Jingle bell time, is a swell time; to go gliding in a one-horse sleigh. Giddy-up jingle horse, Pick up your feet, jingle around the clock. Mix and a-mingle, in the jingling feet. That's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell, that's the jingle bell rock." Her and Alice finish twirling into a pose together laughing happily. They all spend the next hour talking and dancing, until Charlie leaves, then things calm down a bit, Kat sitting with Jasper on one of the loveseats will talking with Alice.

"Okay, present time." Esme calls, coming into the room.

"Christmas is tomorrow." Rosalie points out.

"I mean the presents between Katrina and us Rosalie." Esme says giving her a look.

"I'll pass them out." Alice jumps up from her seat, as the rest of the family find places to sit. She quickly passes each of them their gift from Kat, and places Kat's presents from them in front of her. Rosalie looks down at hers looking confused.

"Who wants to go first?" Esme asks.

"I do." Emmett quickly chimes. He pulls open his box, grinning as he holds up multiple game controllers, all made custom.

"They're titanium… I figured you'd take a little more time breaking them that way." Kat smirks from her seat. Jasper chuckles next to her shaking his head.

"Thanks Kat, they're great." Emmett grins at her. "Open the present from me." Kat leans forward picking up a large box, she pulls off the wrapping, the box shows a picture of a stereo system, with a cord to plug in her iPod.

"Thanks Emmett, it's awesome!" she says, reading what it can do with a large grin.

"My turn!" Alice sings, ripping open her present. "I love it, Kat. Thank you." She says racing off, coming back a moment later, wearing her new dress. It was a deep red cocktail dress that flared out at the waist. "Now open mine." Kat picks up the bag, pretty sure she knows what Alice would get her. Smiling as she pulls out a blue and green sundress.

"Thanks Alice."

"Edward, why don't you go?" Esme says, grinning, loving watching her children open the gifts. Edward opens his box, smiling as he pulls out a few CD's from a band he had never heard of.

"I thought you'd like some of those, they're a group I knew in Olympia when I was a kid." He nods.

"Thank you, Kat." He motions for her to open her gift from him. She picks up the bag, opening it, she grins.

"Thank you." Inside is a very old book about composers.

"Rosalie?" Esme prompts her. Rosalie opens the box, pausing when she sees the silver, oval shaped, locket. She opens it, eyes widening slightly. Inside are two pictures, one of the Cullen family, and another of Emmett and her on their first wedding day.

"Alice helped me get the pictures, I hope you like it… I wasn't sure what you'd want." Kat says biting her lip.

"I do… Thank you, Kat…" Rosalie looks up at her. Kat smiles at her widely. "I didn't get you anything…" she says looking somewhat guilty now.

"That's alright, I don't mind." Kat says, still smiling. "Who's next?"

"I'll go." Carlisle says, carefully opening his present. Inside is a copy of an extremely old book, along with a clearly recently made translation. The translated cover says 'The guide to the supernatural: Anatomy and Description. By: Estelle Sparrow – 1652'. Carlisle opens the translated copy of the book, finding an index, with a note saying the original didn't have one. He moves to vampires reading quickly, then flips through the rest. "Where did you get this?" He asks her looking at it shocked.

"I inherited two copies when Ainsley died. I only need one, I thought you'd like it, as far as I can tell the information in it is accurate."

"The part about vampires is… I haven't heard of some of the creatures listed in the index before."

"I've met about five, I guess technically six, of the species in the book, if you count you guys and the wolves..." Kat shrugs.

"This is fascinating Katrina, thank you." Carlisle smiles at her. "Who did the translation?"

"I did."

"You speak Latin?"

"Yeah." She says as if it's the most normal thing. "Ainsley taught me when I was little." Alice is looking between the two looking confused, she had not seen Kat translating the book, or deciding to give it to Carlisle.

"Open your gift from me." Kat nods, picking up the small box, inside is an antique pocket watch, with a silver finish, it has vines engraved around the edge, leading to the back where a dragon is engraved, surrounded by vines.

"This is awesome, thanks Carlisle." She grins at him looking the watch over.

"You're welcome."

"I guess it's my turn." Esme grins, and opens her present, inside is a silver pendent, one side has the Cullen crest, the other has a picture of the family. "It's gorgeous, thank you."

"You're welcome, Alice helped me with the crest design and the photo."

"Open yours." Esme says with a large grin. Kat picks up the small box opening it. Inside is a silver dream catcher pendent, with a dragon at the center, sitting in the catcher.

"Thank you, Esme, It's wonderful." She puts it on. Then turns to Jasper. "That just leaves yours." Jasper smiles at her and opens his box. There is an old civil war era book she knew he'd been looking for, and a smaller box inside. He takes out the book grinning.

"Where did you find this? I've been looking for a copy for years."

"E-Bay." She smirks with a shrug. Jasper takes out the small box, and opens it. Inside is a key chain, a circular disk with his name engraved on it, and a silver star with the quote "And then my soul saw you and it kind of went "Oh there you are. I've been looking for you."" engraved on it. Jasper smiles at this, turning and kissing her softly.

"Thank you." Kat blushes deeply as he pulls back.

"You're welcome…"

"Now yours." He puts her last gift in her hands. She opens the box. Inside is a high end sketch book, with high end artist's pencils. Along with a small jewelry box. She opens the box, it's a silver heart shaped locket charm, with a simple design, inside is a picture of the two of them during the summer, along with the words "My Darling". Kat immediately adds it to her charm bracelet.

"Thank you." She hugs him tightly. Jasper hugs her back, kissing the top of her head.

-Line Break-

AN:

I hope you all enjoyed, please leave a review with what you thought and any ideas you may have. But please no flames. I am fine with constructive criticism; but please leave it in a polite manner. Simply calling out ways in which my writing style is either not like yours, or that something is not what most would consider grammatically correct because you dislike it is not helpful. Pointing out ways in which you believe I may be able to improve, either grammatically, spelling wise, or even in style can be helpful. Also if a tense is wrong please point it out, this is a rewrite and I changed the tense when I edited/ rewrote it and there are probably at least a few errors I missed. There is no need to be rude and if you simply don't like the story it is your choice whether you read it or not, so simply choose not to, I don't need to hear that you hate it.

~ Kat


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